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A veteran Boeing engineer has filed a complaint with federal regulators alleging the company dismissed quality and safety concerns during production of its troubled 787 Dreamliner jets.
Federal safety officials are investigating claims by the engineer, Sam Salehpour, that in 2021 he observed Boeing using shortcuts during the 787 assembly process that placed excessive stress on important joints and embedded drilling debris between joints on more than 1,000 planes. The errors, they say, reduce the plane’s lifespan and could be difficult to detect.
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Boeing is reworking 50 undelivered 737 MAX jets after a supplier’s employee recently found misdrilled holes on some fuselages, a new production snafu for the aircraft manufacturer.
Spirit AeroSystems, which has been at the center of quality issues affecting 737s, supplied the fuselages and it was one of its employees that flagged the issue. Shares of Spirit fell in Monday trading. It reports quarterly results Tuesday.
Boeing said that the issue could delay some deliveries in the near term and that existing 737s can keep flying.
“This is the only course of action given our commitment to deliver perfect airplanes every time,” Boeing’s commercial chief Stan Deal said in a memo to staff on Sunday.
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Bolts needed to secure part of an Alaska Airlines jet that blew off in midair appear to have been missing when the plane left Boeing’s BA 1.60%increase; green up pointing triangle factory.
Boeing and other industry officials increasingly believe the plane maker’s employees failed to put back the bolts when they reinstalled a 737 MAX 9 plug door after opening or removing it during production, according to people familiar with the matter.
The increasingly likely scenario, according to some of these people, is based partly on an apparent absence of markings on the Alaska door plug itself that would suggest bolts were in place when it blew off the jet around 16,000 feet over Oregon on Jan. 5.
They also pointed to paperwork and process lapses at Boeing’s Renton, Wash., factory related to the company’s work on the plug door.
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The FAA grounded some Boeing 737 MAX 9 planes after a door plug fell from an Alaska Airlines flight. WSJ’s George Downs explores what the accident means for Boeing and whether it can afford another setback. Photo composite: NTSB/George Downs
Boeing BA 1.60%increase; green up pointing triangle was having trouble making enough 737s before the Alaska Airlines door-plug blowout. Now it faces new concerns that added inspections and regulatory scrutiny will sap its output this year.
Key airline customers are inspecting existing 737 MAX 9 planes, while federal air-safety officials are delving into the jet maker’s broader manufacturing processes. They are also examining supplier Spirit AeroSystems SPR 1.03%increase; green up pointing triangle, which produced the plane’s door plug and fuselage.
Several aerospace analysts have lowered their financial forecasts for Boeing following the Jan. 5 accident, which also led to the grounding of 170 MAX 9 jets. How significant the financial impact is will depend, they say, on how long it takes to identify the cause and secure long-awaited certification of other MAX models.
“The pace is clearly going to be affected,” said Michel Merluzeau of AIR, a research company in Seattle. “In the longer term, this puts a lot of pressure on Boeing.”
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Boeing is withdrawing a request for a safety exemption for a new MAX series jet that would have allowed U.S. regulators to speed up its approval, a decision that comes as the plane maker faces heightened scrutiny in the wake of a midair accident earlier this month.
Boeing confirmed Tuesday that it would withdraw the request, made last year to the Federal Aviation Administration, related to the new 737 MAX 7 jet’s de-icing system.
“While we are confident that the proposed time-limited exemption for that system follows established FAA processes to ensure safe operation, we will instead incorporate an engineering solution that will be completed during the certification process,” Boeing said in a statement to Dow Jones Newswires.
The decision comes amid pressure from lawmakers to drop the request in the wake of a midair blowout of a door plug on a 737 MAX 9 jet flown by Alaska Airlines on Jan. 5, and adds uncertainty to the certification timeline of the MAX 7. Before the accident, Boeing had been expecting certification of the MAX 7 and the longer MAX 10—both are already delayed—early this year.
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Travelers with upcoming flights on Alaska, United may be affected after Alaska flight was forced to make emergency landing
Alaska Air and United said they grounded all of their MAX 9 jets as they awaited details about possible additional work that may be required to comply with the FAA’s order. Travelers on Tuesday faced flight cancellations by United and Alaska airlines, one of several ripple effects from the weekend grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 9.
The problem is now compounded by a series of severe storms across the U.S. United Airlines canceled more than 190 flights, or 7% of flights, as of Tuesday morning, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Alaska Airlines canceled about 17% of its flights as of Tuesday morning.
The fallout stems from a Friday incident on an Alaska flight from Portland, Ore., to Ontario, Calif. An emergency exit-sized door plug blew out at around 16,000 feet.
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After latest incident, Boeing executives race to reassure airlines as FAA grounds 171 MAX 9 jets
A 737 MAX at Boeing’s factory in Renton, Wash. The line of jets has encountered past troubles. The last thing Boeing needed was more trouble with its 737 MAX jet. That is exactly what it got to start the new year.
The company had just started to regain its footing after years of tumult around the popular but troubled line of narrow-body jets when a MAX 9 operated by Alaska Airlines had a structural failure Friday night.
A panel that plugs an emergency door ripped away at 16,000 feet leaving a gaping hole in a cabin full of passengers. The Federal Aviation Administration responded Saturday by ordering airlines to ground about 171 of the MAX 9 planes and to conduct inspections. The checks take about four hours and, if cleared, planes can return to service.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Saturday that its investigation is focused on the Alaska Airlines incident and isn’t looking more broadly at Boeing’s 737 MAX.
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A door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines jet midair after moving off a set of stops designed to keep it attached to the plane, investigators said on Monday. United Airlines said it also discovered loose parts on its Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets.
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